laptop instruments???

[nolasailor]

I am in need of all new instraments.... wind, depth, speed,,, and was looking into the laptop programs. how do you hook up the transducers to the lap top,, any body doing this,,, seems like a good idea but cant seem to find out if my transducers from the late 90,s would work,,, I was told that even the newer transducers are still analog,,,, so will the older ducers,,, standard harizon work???

[jackdale]

We hooked a set of Tack Tick instruments into my laptop using a serial connection that was wired into the Tack Tick module. I had mucho help doing so.

We were running Expedition and needed the input from the instruments. The wiring diagram provided was inaccurate but we got it figured.

[prroots]

I would be looking for transducers that have NMEA 0183 output option. You can interface them via a USB to serial converter to a COM port of your laptop. This is what I've done on my new-to-me 2001 Beneteau 411 which came with all Raymarine instruments. I was lucky because even though Raymarine uses a proprietary SeaTalk network, one of the instruments included a NMEA input and output port. There is also a much newer NMEA 2000 protocol, but that is more expensive although much easier to interface.
Pete

[nolasailor]

the paper work i found on the gauges states that the standard horizion is nmea 0183. I do not have the gauges, and the the wires were cut. Where and what is the usb to serial converter and can it be hard wired to the ducers that no longer have the conectors on the end of the wire???

[prroots]

Originally Posted by nolasailor

the paper work i found on the gauges states that the standard horizion is nmea 0183. I do not have the gauges, and the the wires were cut. Where and what is the usb to serial converter and can it be hard wired to the ducers that no longer have the conectors on the end of the wire???

To be much help you would need to supply the model number of the Standard Horizon. In the meantime, I would assume it's an older VHF radio that supports DSC but not AIS. If true, this radio wants gps data as an input. In other words it has an input on NMEA, not an output. You could feed the gps data it requires direct from a chartplotter. Typically that involves two wires (NMEA out connected to NMEA in plus a common). This of course does not help with your original question of inputting transducer signals to laptop.
Pete